Thailand's airport authority expects nearly 5 mln travelers during New Year

20:09, December 20, 2019

• 

  3b trips expected during Spring Festival travel rush

  About 3 billion trips are expected to be made during the worlds largest annual human migration — the Spring Festival travel rush, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.Passengers are seen on the train G4215 on Jan 21, 2019. (Photo: China Daily)China will take multiple measures to ensure the travel rush is a smooth one, the commission said in a news release on Wednesday.The upcoming 40-day Spring Festival travel rush is going to kick off on Jan 10 and end on Feb 28. The number of road trips is projected to reach some 2.43 billion, a 1.2 percent drop from last year, while train trips are likely to top 440 million during the period, up 8 percent year-on-year, according to the commission.Air travel will likely see some 79 million trips, surging 8.4 percent, while boat trips are predicted to hit 45 million, which will see a 9.6 percent year-on-year increase, it said.With the integrated urban-rural development, the growth of passenger trips as well as long-distance trips has slowed down during the Spring Festival travel rush, the commission said, adding that the Spring Festival travel season started a little earlier this year, which will put more pressure on the railway and civil aviation sectors.Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese Lunar New Year, begins on Jan 25 and is Chinas most important holiday for family reunions.

• 

  Air travel during Spring Festival expected to set record

  An Air China plane takes off from Beijing Daxing International Airport on Sept 25, 2019. (Photo: chinadaily.com.cn)Passenger trips by air will hit a record high in the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush, according to a news release by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Thursday.The 40-day Spring Festival travel rush for 2020 will begin on Jan 10 and end on Feb 18.According to the release, the civil aviation sector will handle 79 million passenger trips during the travel rush, a projected year-on-year rise of 8.4 percent.The administration said there will be over 16,000 flights in service during the rush.So far, there are about 9.32 million reservations for flight tickets for the travel rush, up 13.9 percent year-on-year, according to the release.Flight reservations to domestic destinations will rise 23.9 percent, and those to overseas destinations will be up 9.54 percent year-on-year.However, reservations to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan declined by 18.9 percent from the previous year, the administration said.Capacity and ticket reservations between the Chinese mainland and the United States and Australia will see a downturn for the first time in the past four years, it added.Airlines to Japan, Thailand and South Korea will be the busiest during the travel rush.Also, trips to France will see an increase during the Spring Festival.The administration stressed safety and travel services for the approaching travel rush to secure better experiences for travelers.For example, there are 229 airports across the nation that allow travelers to board with electronic passes to simplify the procedures.Also, 360 planes at eight airlines have offered Wi-Fi to about 7.1 million travelers so far.The administration will also enhance the monitoring system for weather and air traffic to improve the performance of airlines.

• 

  Man who discussed US attack gets nearly 5 years in prison

  This April 4, 2019, file photo released by the Missoula County Sheriffs Office shows Fabjan Alameti, 21. (Photo: AP)A 21-year-old New York man who pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI after authorities said he talked about joining the Islamic State and avenging the New Zealand mosque shootings has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison.Fabjan Alameti was sentenced in federal court in Missoula on Friday to four years and nine months in prison after previously pleading guilty to two counts of lying to a federal officer about making terrorism-related comments.Authorities first interviewed Alameti in 2018, and he later made pro-Islamic State social media posts.Prosecutors say he was traveling to Montana by bus on March 15 when a gunman killed 50 people in Christchurch. Alameti, who told an informant that he would “attack random people to avenge the blood,” was arrested April 3 at a Bozeman gun range.Alameti’s public defender argued his client’s statements were protected under the First Amendment.